One essential aspect of construction is concrete and other construction material (referred to generally as “concrete”), which is employed in the construction of buildings, parking garages, and other structures. Typically, concrete is transported by, for example, a concrete mixing truck to a construction site where it is pumped to a placement or installation location. Alternatively, concrete may also be mixed at the construction site and pumped to the placement location.
To convey the concrete to the placement location while at a construction site, some known assemblies, such as those commercially sold by the company, Putzmeister, utilize a trailer or truck having multiple extendable and articulating boom sections acting as a frame for a conduit or piping carrying the concrete to a placement location. These multiple extendable boom sections are sometimes referred to as a “main conveyor.” To get the concrete to the main conveyor, these assemblies utilize a pumping system to transport the concrete to the placement location. These boom sections are pivotally coupled with respect to one another and are operable to have a single degree of freedom with respect to a single joint in which two individual boom sections are coupled. Over the length of the main conveyor, the multiple boom sections combine to have multiple degrees of freedom, yet they are still problematically limited to a single access of movement, i.e., vertically, with respect to one another. As such, to navigate to the main conveyor horizontally the entire main conveyor is required to be rotated with respect to the base of main conveyor and the trailer (hereinafter “main conveyor base joint”). This presents multiple problems to users having concrete placement locations within tight and/or compact confines and/or construction sites where power and/or telephone lines are present. Readjusting the length or position of the main conveyor, whether it be by horizontal movement about the main conveyor base joint or by pivoting individual boom sections with respect to one another, can also be a cost-, time-, and/or labor-intensive endeavor.
These above-described conduit-based pumping systems are also problematic in that they are not as compact as telescopic main conveyors utilizing belt conveyors, such as those commercially marketed by Putzmetizer under the trademark Telebelt TB 600 and as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,624,357, 6,431,346, 8,662,291 (wherein the entirety of said descriptions are incorporated herein by reference). Moreover, those conduit-based pumping systems are also problematic in that they generally require more power to operate and, should the pump break and/or malfunction, also typically require the entire conduit to be replaced. Furthermore, there are significant safety issues associated with pumping systems as they can become over-pressurized, fail, and generate condition called “hose whip.”
Many of the known belt conveyors also present problems to users because they too require rotation of the main conveyor at the main conveyor base joint to place and/or deliver the concrete to the user and/or maneuver the end hose attached to the distal end of the main conveyor. Moreover, those known telescopic belt conveyors telescope the main conveyor by extending and retracting a plurality of boom sections within one another. Therefore, vertical adjustment of one or more of the main boom sections is unavailable unless the user vertically adjusts the main conveyor about the main conveyor base joint, which can cost- and time-intensive.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.